The next morning, I woke to another knock on my door.
"Come in," I mumbled into the pillow, refusing to get up.
"Here's your breakfast," an unfamiliar voice said. "Captain Phasma wants to speak with you later. She was summoned into a meeting, but she will come for you at some point."
"Thanks," I replied, unable to open my eyes.
The door closed and locked again, and the bed pulled me back into my sleep. This time, I was met with another dream.
I'm standing in a forest. I've been separated from the rest of the people I was with. I'm holding some sort of gun in one hand, but my other hand rests lightly on a knife in my belt. I hear a whir behind me and snap around to meet the masked man holding a lightsaber.
"Kylo Ren," my voice spats.
"I'm sorry to say I can't return the greeting," the robotic voice replies.
I raise my gun up, but he waves his hand, and it goes flying. I pull out my knife, and he laughs.
"What do you plan on doing with that?"
I spin over my shoulder as if to flee, then race back towards him, hurling the knife at his thigh. He reacts too slowly, and it lodges itself into his flesh. He barely flinches as he yanks it out and tosses it on the ground next to him.
"I can sense the Force in you. If you join me, I can train you how to use it," he growls.
"You're wrong," I growl back. "Rey is the only one with the Force."
I see his shoulders move with a silent laugh.
"Oh, but you're wrong. Join me," he says, reaching out his hand.
An explosion goes off next to him, and he takes off running the opposite direction. I look behind me to see a group of faceless warriors coming to assist me.
I snapped awake, piecing together the unexplained things that had happened since the crash. The broken things at Dorinne and Jake's. The things that had shifted around my cabin. I tried to focus on what I had been feeling each time it happened, but I was unable to narrow it down. One thing I did know for sure now was that Kylo Ren had tried to get me to join him once before. And if he was trying to get me to join him, then I must have been fighting for the other side. Of this I was sure.
I shook off my sleep, scooping food into my mouth and braiding my hair before returning to sit on the only furniture in the room made for any type of sitting: the bed. My mind desperately tried to search for more answers. One thing I could make out was that I didn't want to be part of either side of this war, but I did want to find a way to end it. Why were we even fighting? What was the outcome? And what good could I do with this supposed Force that I was seemingly unable to control?
I sighed, rubbing my hands over my face and laying back down.
Another knock on my door pulled my attention.
"Yeah?" I called out.
"Astra?" he opened the door.
I sat up, smiling at my new friend.
"Hey, HR!"
"I volunteered to bring you to Captain Phasma. Did you sleep alright?" he asked.
"I think so. I just woke up not too long ago," I said, putting my shoes on.
"Really? It's nearly the afternoon. Did you stay up late?"
"No. I fell asleep pretty quickly after you last left. I guess my body was more drained than I realized."
I hopped up, stepping to his side. I was glad to have a familiar voice back.
"Hey," I said, grabbing his arm before he could open the door. "Do you think it would be ok if I saw your face? I'd like to imagine it while we talk."
He paused just long enough for me to think that I had offended him. Before I could speak again, he set down his blaster and put his hands on the sides of his helmet. I watched him take in a large breath before he lifted it from his head.
His light brown hair was thick and unkempt. He looked to be only slightly younger than me, whatever that meant. And his baby blue eyes were piercing. He appeared unsure at first, but when I smiled broadly at him, he relaxed and returned it.
"That's better! Now let's see a few facial expressions so I can place them into your new brain file," I said enthusiastically.
He laughed, his eyes forming a crescent.
"You look better without this thing, too, you know."
I joined in with his laughter, only laughing harder as he made sad and angry faces.
"Thank you, HR. It's nice to place the human behind the mask."
My smile faltered as my mind went to Kylo again. What was behind his mask? The deep voice that wove through the mechanics of the mask had to belong to some sort of disfigured monster... right?
"We should go. I have a feeling the trouble I could get in for making the captain wait is far worse than the trouble you would get in," he said, pulling on his helmet again.
I nodded, letting him lead the way. Again, I kept quiet as I tried to memorize the layout of the base. I could feel HR watching me but simply smiled with a side glance. We reached a large door, and he knocked.
"Captain, I have the girl with me."
I crinkled my nose at the way he referred to me, but I understood his desire to keep things impersonal.
"Send her in!" her voice called out.
"Good luck," he whispered before taking off down the hallway.
I stepped inside, closing the door behind me. I was surprised to find her without the silver armor.
"Sit," she commanded, pointing to a chair next to her.
I quickly followed her instructions, hoping if I obeyed, I would get more information from her. Now that I had more memories to work with, I figured I could work her a little better. I watched as she finished writing something down, trying not to interrupt with questions.
"I had a lengthy discussion about you with Supreme Leader Ren," she started.
"Oh?" I said when she took a long pause.
"Mmm," she nodded. "How is your body feeling today?"
"Um, a little sore, but not bad. I slept a lot. And ate."
She gave me a small smile.
"Good. I guess we can go with Plan B. Starting tomorrow, we will train four times a week for six hours at a time. If I am not around to train you, someone else will step in. Since you have strong hand-to-hand combat skills, we will continue to refine those for now. The other three days will be for you to hold your weight around here. You will be tasked with different jobs around the base until we figure out where your talents best fit. HR-3745 has volunteered to show you the different jobs, so you will join him for the rest of the day today to start that. We will follow this plan for the next two months. After that, Supreme Leader Ren has asked that we show him your skills before deciding how to move forward. Now, any questions?"
I took a moment, trying to decide where I wanted to start. I was thrilled to have the chance to spend more time with my new friend, but I also wanted to question the motives behind this plan. And how many other plans there had been. And what those plans were.
"Why are we doing this? The training? What do you guys hope to achieve through it?"
"First off, you will remove any defiance from your voice when speaking to a superior. While I may be more forgiving than Master Ren, I do not appreciate your tone. Second, that is not my business to share. If he wishes you to know, the Supreme Leader will tell you."
I tried to resist crossing my arms and pouting. I had already pushed too far to get answers, and I hadn't even gotten the ones that I wanted! I decided to try for something completely unplanned.
"I remember him. Kylo. From before when we fought opposite sides," I said quietly.
The captain's head snapped up at that.
"What did you remember?" she asked, trying to force down the panic in her voice.
"He tried to get me to join your cause."
"What did you tell him," she asked ferociously.
"I didn't. The area we were in was attacked, and he took off before he was outnumbered by The Resistance."
She stared at me without emotion.
"When did you recall this?"
"A little over an hour ago, I guess."
"And you still came to meet with me?" she asked.
"Would you have let me say no?" I laughed.
"Well, what do you plan to do now?" she inquired.
"Train with you."
She frowned at me.
"Why?"
I sighed loudly.
"Because I think both sides are wrong. But if I can learn more here, maybe it will change my mind."
She stared at me, void of emotion.
"You know, telling me this could be the end of your life," she stated.
I nodded.
"I know."
"So why did you tell me?"
"Because I have this pull towards things. The more I resist it, the more death and destruction surrounds me," I whispered.
"And where is that pull telling you to go now?" she asked, dangerously close to my face.
"To Kylo."
She jerked back. Unsure of how to respond.
"Do you plan to kill him?" she inquired.
I shook my head vigorously.
"No. I can't explain what it is, but I absolutely don't want him dead."
A blush painted my cheeks, and I quickly tried to hide my face.
"Ah. I see. Well, tomorrow we start training. Though, I will need to report to the Supreme Leader that some of your memories are starting to return. I will send word if the plans need to change for our training."
"Thank you, Captain. And I'm sorry for any disrespect you may have felt I showed you. I tend to have a knack for stubborn defiance," I smirked.
She raised her eyebrows up and laughed heartily.
"You remind me of myself. So this will either turn out extremely well or extremely horribly."
I smiled at her finding myself attached to some part of this woman. I wanted to hug her as I had with HR, but I didn't dare try that now. Instead, I settled for asking one more question.
"Why did Kylo kidnap me instead of trying to ask me to join him again? Showing up to my house in the middle of the night was not really the best choice if he wanted me to trust him."
"He has a tendency to act on emotion. He could sense you more as you started to heal, and he just left without much warning. You throwing a knife at him immediately didn't really leave much room for negotiations," she winked.
I could see her point, though I knew mine was still valid. I nodded in thanks at her and stood to take my leave.
"I will send for you in the morning. Take care of your body while you can," she said, walking me out.
"Thanks. I will," I replied, fighting the urge to hug her once again.
As she shut the door, I spun around and was met with a stormtrooper helmet.
"I see you survived," he said.
I sighed with relief.
"I hear you volunteered to show me the ropes. What's on the agenda for today?"
"Well, I'm scheduled on kitchen duty, so I guess you're joining me with that. I promise your next task will be more fun," he bumped my shoulder lightly with his own.
"So, how did you manage to volunteer for such a specific task?" I asked, bumping him back.
"I, um. Well. My intention was to be in charge of taking you to and from training, but I guess I ended up in the right place at the right time because the captain was thinking about who to assign taking you around to jobs, too. So, I guess I kind of made it happen," he laughed awkwardly.
"Well, I'm glad it was you," I smiled broadly.
My time in the kitchen wasn't bad. Turned out I wasn't cut out to be a chef, but it was fun learning from HR. He was talented at creating dishes and snuck me some decent food. I hoped I could find some way to get him in the kitchen more often, but I was more excited to sleep and see what sort of training Phasma would have in the morning.